Argos hang on to beat Tiger-cats
TORONTO — It wasn’t pretty, or conventional, but the Toronto Argonauts are happy to escape the season opener with a 39-34 over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Dontrelle Inman made a tiptoe touchdown catch with just over five minutes left and the Argos defence had to make a last-second stop to secure the victory at Rogers Centre on Friday night. Inman also was called upon to punt after Swayze Waters left the game with a leg injury.
Spencer Watt was also asked to do more than catch the ball. Down 31-25 to start the second half, Watt was forced to make a tough 20-yard touchdown catch in double coverage and then kick the extra point.
“That’s not easy to do when you’re kind of a fish out of water doing something you’re not familiar with doing,” head coach Scott Milanovich said after the game.
“I thought those guys did a tremendous job and then the special teams really seemed to pick it up, understanding, ‘Hey, this is going to be a little tougher now. We’ve lost our kicker.’ I thought that was important to the win as anything.”
Watt, who hasn’t kicked since his final year of high school in 2006, says he will always welcome the challenge. However, making a kick through the goalposts during practice is a lot different than making one in the heat of a game.
The Argos kicked off their Grey Cup championship defence in front of 29,852 fans, the largest audience since the 2009 home opener against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. A boisterous crowd was treated to a pre-game tailgate party, the raising of the championship banner and a presentation of the Grey Cup rings.
But Hamilton came out looking to spoil the evening.
Henry Burris gave the Ticats a 13-point lead after the opening frame with two touchdown passes, his longest a 64-yard strike to a wide open Andy Fantuz. The Argos defence couldn’t seem to solve the veteran, who threw for 497 yards and four touchdowns the last time these two teams met.
On this night, Burris finished 24-for-36 with 361 and three touchdowns.
“Once you go up against a great offence, your offence has to be great as well. So that’s the mindset we had and we just continued to push,” Inman said.
Toronto sent the home crowd into a frenzy on the game’s opening drive with a six-play, 83-yard drive capped off by Ricky Ray’s first touchdown pass of the season — an eightyard strike to Jason Barnes.
Ray finished 24 of 34 passes for 368 yards and four touchdowns. It was a tale of two halves. After combining for 56 points and 542 total yards in the first two quarters, the teams managed only 17 points and 401 yards for the rest of the game.